Jason Collett

Western train station, platform 5, 4.18 pm. That’s the meeting point and date we got for the session with Toronto-based Jason Collett, who is also a member of Broken Social Scene. His train is perfectly on time and we pick him up just at the end of the platform in order to use the ride from the train station to the venue of his show for a quick session. Jason seems slightly surprised to see us there; maybe he’s still elsewhere with his thoughts, just arriving in a new city and probably not having his complete schedule for the day in mind yet. But he’s into the offstage sessions concept and opts for a rather quiet outdoor spot, so we take the metro and head to the Naschmarkt area with its abandoned market atmosphere (it’s a Sunday). Jason picks up his guitar and starts into „High Summer“ from his new album „Rat a Tat Tat“ while walking down the alley. Halfway through the song he suddenly turns left into a short, dim passage and continues playing under the arcade. „I came in here for the reverb. It sounded good just walking by”, he says after the song, „Let’s try another song?“ Yes, please! And on he goes, playing a beautiful version of „Long May You Love“.